No. 7 Stanford rebounds to snap two-game conference skid

STANFORD, Calif. (AP) -- Jayne Appel took last weekend's losses personally. She wanted to put them out of her mind with a big performance.

Appel had 25 points and eight rebounds and No. 7 Stanford ended a two-game conference losing streak with an 81-45 victory over Oregon State on Thursday night.

Cissy Pierce added 10 points as Stanford (13-3, 3-2 Pac-10) rebounded from a rare losing streak after losing to UCLA and Southern California last weekend. The Cardinal have not lost more than two in a row since a three-game slide from Jan. 6-13, 2001.

"We needed to prove ourselves again," said Appel, who combined for 39 points and 19 rebounds in the losses. "I missed that [late] free throw against USC, so, yeah, we needed to show how hard we do work and to make up for last game."

Stanford All-American Candice Wiggins hit her first field goal with less than 14 minutes remaining and finished with a season-low four points in 14 minutes, ending a streak of 14 straight games scoring in double figures. Her career low is three points, set at Oregon State last year.

"She's there when we need her," Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said of Wiggins. "She doesn't get caught up in minutes or numbers. She understands the big picture. It was nice to give Candice a rest so when we need her to play 40 minutes, she can."

Appel made her first nine shots and was 12-for-13 overall. The 25 points were her second-highest amount of the season to the 30 she scored in a double overtime win at Utah. The .923 shooting percentage ranks fourth-highest in school history.

"That was the name of the game," VanDerveer said. "We wanted to give it to her and she finished. We were all very disappointed in how we played last week and we knew we had to come out and play well every game."

Ashley Allen, the Pac-10's leading scorer, scored 13 points to lead Oregon State (8-7, 1-3), though she missed all eight of her long-range attempts.

The Beavers, playing their first nationally ranked team, missed their first 12 3-point attempts. Talisa Rhea broke the string with a 3-pointer at the 3:23 mark of the second half. She added another in the closing seconds and finished with 10 points.

"Stanford is a very good team whether they are coming off a loss or a win," Beavers' coach LaVonda Wagner said. "They have a great inside game and we were not able to get help on [Appel]. They went over the top and she got a lot of easy baskets."

Stanford has won the past 15 meetings with Oregon State, and improved to 23-0 at home against the Beavers.

Cissy Pierce's 3-pointer with 12:28 left in the first half put Stanford up 19-4 and it did not get much better for Oregon State, which committed 25 turnovers in the game.

Wiggins was 0-for-3 from the field and did not score in the first half. The Cardinal scored seven of the last eight points to take a 42-19 halftime lead.